Photo: GB3
Hitech GP’s Gerrard Xie scored his first two GB3 poles after edging team-mate Tymek Kucharczyk in the final moments of qualifying at the Hungaroring.
The Chinese racer set the fastest lap of qualifying on his final tour to deny the championship leader race one pole by 0.006 seconds, and his second-best laptime was good enough to take pole for race two, with Kucharczyk again second and William Macintyre completing a Hitech top-three lockout.
Xie displaced Kucharczyk at the top of the timesheet in the early stages of the 25-minute session before Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp lapped 0.029s quicker and JHR Developments’ John Bennett lowered the pace by a further 0.09s. Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell was next to lead the way, and Kucharczyk soon beat him by almost 0.2s.
But Xie moved ahead once more by 0.073s and extended his advantage by 0.005s on the lap after, while Sharp climbed ahead of Waberski into third. Most of the field headed for the pitlane to change to tyres, with Macintyre using his fresh rubber to improve to third going into the final 10 minutes of qualifying, and he moved to the top by 0.041s on his next lap.
Xie responded by knocking 0.273s off the benchmark pace, before Kucharczyk edged back ahead by 0.091s. Bennett took third away from Macintyre, then with a few seconds remaining Xie set a 1m39.629s to take pole.
James Hedley was Rodin’s fastest driver in his first GB3 outing with the team, qualifying 0.002s ahead of Cresswell in fifth. JHR’s Patrick Heuzenroeder was seventh ahead of Velocity Racing Development by Arden’s Shawn Rashid.
Having slipped down to 10th, Sharp improved his pace on his final lap but could only gain one place to ninth ahead of Waberski. He will, however, start from fifth in race two. JHR’s Josh Irfan is set to start from reversed-grid pole in race three after going 12th fastest.
Qualifying results
Race 1 grid
1 Gerrard Xie Hitech GP 1m39.629s
2 Tymek Kucharczyk Hitech GP +0.006s
3 John Bennett JHR Developments +0.184s
4 Will Macintyre Hitech GP +0.276s
5 James Hedley Rodin Motorsport +0.423s
6 McKenzy Cresswell Elite Motorsport +0.425s
7 Patrick Heuzenroeder JHR Developments +0.488s
8 Shawn Rashid VRD by Arden 0.493s
9 Louis Sharp Rodin Motorsport +0.507s
10 Jarrod Waberski Elite Motorsport +0.535s
Race 2 grid
1 Xie 1m39.370s
2 Kucharczyk +0.157s
3 Macintyre +0.279s
4 Cresswell +0.364s
5 Sharp +0.479s
6 Heuzenroeder +0.501s
7 Waberski +0.550s
8 Bennett +0.585s
9 Arthur Rogeon Rodin Motorsport +0.750s
10 Noah Ping VRD by Arden +0.694s